Air Apparent - Recap

It’s a clear night in New York city. Cabs can be seen everywhere, people moving, never stopping. An announcer begins his introduction. Riley begins his preparation, taking in the crowd; cheering, chanting for him. His eyes close as his name gets louder and louder, his fingers in the air to his side. Almost as if he can feel their words. Hank, Riley’s brother is incarcerated. He [at the same time] also has his hands in the air to his side as he is being examined by a correctional officer. The officer turns Hank around to examine his back. Hank can now see an inmate down the jail hall mopping the floor. The man nods at Hank; Hank nods back. As Hank goes back to his cell he passes the inmate. The man mopping the floor hands Hank a black object. Hank quickly puts it into his pocket and continues on to his cell. When he gets there he rests a moment. He quickly gets up and advances towards his cell mate, it looks as if Hank is going to take the object and use it against his cell mate, His cell mate quickly and happily moves out of Hanks way as Hank pulls out the object. Hanks cell mate walks over to the cell door and uses his body to cover the small window. Nobody would be able to see in. Hank pulls the antenna out of the black device and turns it on. The radio begins to whistle as Hank tunes it in, to his brother’s high school basketball game. His brother Riley was a superstar.

Its daytime now, overcast. Riley waits for Hank outside of the entrance to the jail. Hank jokes about what he would have done during that game if he were playing instead of listening from jail. They embrace and Riley dedicates his win to his brother. “A welcome home present.” Hank is flattered and offers a gift in return. He promises his brother he will not do drugs again, that he is clean and intends on staying that way. Riley seems skeptical.

3 weeks later. A woman is dead on the hardwood floor in her living room. Blood spattered across her face, neck and heart. Blood, brown, dried, and congealed; pooled around her and streaked from where she had initially gotten stabbed. Mac stops as the hardwood floor meets the carpet in her hallway. He overlooks the scene and is informed of the deceased woman’s name. Angela Cohen. She had been stabbed several times and her boyfriend, Hank had moved in 3 weeks ago when he had gotten out of prison. Behind her door the word “Hank” was written in blood. Angela’s left pointer finger had dried blood on it. Indicating that she had written his name on the door. There was a kitchen knife missing and another blood streak on the hardwood floor. Hank meanwhile is in a desolate graffiti covered room getting high, thinking about playing basketball. He hears the announcer in his head as he takes a balled up piece of paper and tosses it across the room. He is now eating dinner with his brother when the police knock on his door with a warrant for his arrest. Riley tries to stop them and they tell Hank that he is under arrest for the murder of Angela Kelly.

Hank is in disbelief as he is interrogated. The police think that he is the one who killed her but he claims he is innocent. His name written in blood on the door and the drugs found on her table were two clear pieces of evidence against him. Hank believed he was innocent and told the police he loved her, He still claimed not to have done it. The police believed that Hank had gotten caught; by Angela while he was “using” and had gotten into a fight with Her because of it. They believe he took her kitchen knife and stabbed her with it. But wait, Hank couldn’t have been there because he was at a crack house; “Getting high.”

In the crime lab Dr.’s Hammerback and Hawkes are examining the 10 stab wounds that Angela had sustained during her murder. They see that she was killed by her stab wounds and a kitchen knife was the most likely murder weapon. She had no drugs in her body at her time of death and there were signs that she had struggled with her attacker. Most of her wounds were on her right side. The knife cuts on her palm and forearm shows that she had tried to defend herself. The knife wound on her back however was unexplained. It could have been inflicted as she attempted to run away but it was unlikely.

Dr. Hammerback then shows Sheldon another odd piece of evidence. In one of Angela’s wounds he had tweezed out a laminated piece of plastic. Laminated with a reflective plastic coat. Sheldon takes the piece of plastic, to “have Adam take a look.” Sign of a struggle are apparent everywhere in Angela’s kitchen and living room. Blood stained counter look wet with dried blood, stools and personal items strewn about. 3 of Angela’s wounds had not been inflicted with much force. It struck Sid and Sheldon as odd while they pondered why.

Lindsay after examining the gruesome scene is working on her findings in the lab. As Hank and Riley are face to face in an interrogation room. The look on Riley’s face tells it all, the anger and disappointment being suppressed. Hank; Happy to see Riley says; “Little brother,” Riley’s expression answers without Riley having to say a word. His disappointment quickly dissolves into pure anger and he stands and upends the table on top of his brother Hank. Hank’s pleads of innocence mean nothing. Riley takes a piece of paper he had in his hand and balls it up, he tosses it as his brother as Hank continues to proclaim his innocence. The police escort Riley into Mac’s interrogation room where Mac starts by reading the piece of balled up paper that Riley threw at Hank. A contract, written when Riley was 7 between he and his brother. Ensuring they would not allow anything to get in between Riley and his dreams of playing professional basketball. Riley wants to believe his brother is innocent but he knows that he is a drug addict. That part of him is a person that Riley doesn’t know and anybody could be capable of doing something like that when they are “influenced.” Hank lost his chance to play professional when he was younger. He had torn his Achilles and was forced into rehab. He was never able to stay off the drugs after that.

Sid, still examining Angela’s body discovers that the finger that was painted with blood, used to write Hank’s name on the door was incapable of working after sustaining its wounds. The killer had used Angela’s hand to write “hank” on the wall. In another part of the lab Sheldon is working on the stab wounds themselves, he figures out that not all the wounds were inflicted during the struggle. They were placed there to make the murder look like a “Crime of passion.” A second piece of staged evidence. It is beginning to look as if Hank was framed for the murder of his girlfriend. Lindsay discovers an unknown person’s blood mixed with Angela’s on the floor. This is assumed to be the blood of the person that murdered Angela. There was a torn love letter at the scene perhaps that was ripped up and staged as evidence also.

Adam has discovered the laminated piece of plastic found on Angela’s body was a Hologram logo. A logo for a very exclusive company that sells bracelets to professional athletes. After contacting the company Adam lets Stella know that the bracelets had been sold to Riley’s basketball team and the piece of the bracelet could be traced back to its owner.

At a barber shop Nick Blount is talking to Lindsay and Don, he explains that he did not kill Angela; the flakes of skin were under Angela’s nails because she had washed and conditioned his hair that night. The hologram bracelet he was wearing was broken. At that very moment…Adam called Lindsay to tell her about the holograms and the bracelets. She knew he was lying and so did he. Nick pushes some things out of his way and grabs a hostage. He takes a straight razor to his hostages’ throat but both Don and Lindsay have their guns trained on his head. It was pointless, so he gave himself up. As Lindsay and Don are trying to figure out what his motive would have been and why he would throw the murder weapon out; bloody, in the dumpster behind his apartment. Nick then kicks himself free of the car window and begins to wriggle out; As soon as his feet touch the street a car collides with him sending poor Nick flying forward. He survives but is badly injured.

Lindsay and Mac in Mac’s office are discussing the case. Mac tells Lindsay that Nick had no motive to kill Angela; he had no problems with Hank. Despite the murder weapon and a lockpick set (used to hide forced entry into Angela’s apartment) would clear Hank, for the time being. Although Nick would have no reason to kill her. The blood found at the scene was also not Nick’s which meant that Nick had not acted alone. Hank is cleared and set free. The CSI team discovers that the Coach gets paid millions if he is able to deliver students to specific schools. They would give them [the coaches] “kickbacks.” Their coach Gavin had talked to Nick that night. Gavin stood to make millions after he delivered Riley to the school that had bid the highest. It was all the motive in the world. He needed to removes Hanks influence over where his brother went to school. By framing him for murder he would have succeeded. Riley would be influenced by his coach and told to go to that school. Hank knew the coach had planned this and did not tell the police because he had wanted to avenge Angela by stabbing Gavin. With the blood found at the scene matching Gavin’s he was quickly arrested before Hank was able to make his move. Saving he and his brothers futures. Gavin was arrested for the murder of Angela.

A short time later Riley is practicing in his school gymnasium. The door opens and Hank walks through, after a bit of chit chat the brothers begin to act like brothers again and their lives go on.